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Basketball

Apart from not knowing yet when the curtain will rise on this particular performance, Brandon Dean and Tim Ellis are like two veteran actors ready to reprise a familiar role.

In this case, it's winning a basketball championship.

They helped the London Lightning to an impressive 28-8 regular season and first place overall in the National Basketball League of Canada. All that's left is winning the final, which begins sometime this weekend at the John Labatt Centre.

Dean, a guard, and Ellis, a forward, are two of five veteran players brought in by head coach Micheal Ray Richardson when he began putting the team together. Centre Shawn Daniels and guards Eddie Smith and DeAnthony Bowden are the others. All five won a Premier Basketball League title in 2010 and made the final in 2011 under Richardson with Lawton-Fort Mill (Okla.); all but Ellis also won a Continental Basketball Association crown with Richardson in 2009 with Oklahoma.

Despite playing a waiting game this week, Dean and Ellis were pictures of calm Wednesday.

"I've been blessed to be able to play in a few of these," Dean said. "The good thing is we all know what to expect, the practice and preparation that's needed. I've never had a break this long (before a final), but it's been good for us. We've had a chance to get a little rest. The waiting is hard, but we're a veteran team and we've been through a lot like this before.

"And there's not any other pressure than we've experienced before. It's always been our goal to win a championship. Anything less and it means nothing."

Ellis said that from a player's standpoint, a layoff like this one still doesn't change anything except maybe make the players that more eager to hit the hardwood in earnest.

"We just continue to do what we've been doing all along," he said. "We have to go hard in practice to keep the conditioning up and that's going to be important, because the other team is going to be coming in here a little tired."

Ellis knows the five will be counted upon to show their collective leadership.

"For the veterans, we're pretty much all calm because we've been here before," he said. "The other guys will be able to feed off our energy and see how our chemistry is going, because we'll definitely be picking it up for the final."

Ellis knows what London's regular season record means now -- zilch. He's had first-hand experience in that regard.

"I was with Yakama back in 2008 and we had the best record in the CBA going into the playoffs and everyone predicted we'd win it all. And we lost in the first round -- to (Richardsoncoached) Oklahoma," Ellis said as Richardson laughed beside him. "That still bugs me."

Asked who the Lightning would prefer to face, Dean jokingly said the last-place Moncton Miracles while Ellis was non-committal.

"The only thing I see that's different is Quebec is a bit bigger team and Halifax is a bit more scrappy," he said.

Richardson, who feels Halifax will be London's opponent, said there's no real secret to winning at this time of season, adding it's vital London win the first two at home.

"We just want to fine-tune our defensive scheme," he said. "All of the teams in this league look to shoot threes, so we've got to guard the three-point line. And when teams shoot a lot of threes, there are a lot of long rebounds, and our guards will have to get those long rebounds.

"But these guys know what to do. They're all veteran players who have played around the world, so they know what the task is at hand. We just need to go out and play basketball the way we have all year. We're not going to change anything now.

"You're only as good as your last game and if you lose it, you'll be known as a loser," Richardson said. "For me, yeah, and as a basketball player, yes, the season will be a disappointment if we don't win. If you're not the one holding up the trophy at the end of the season, you're just like every other team."